Bohanan Farm in Hopkinton has been in operation since 1907. Five generations. Today it runs more than 120 dairy cows and 180 acres of corn, and bottles about 128,000 fluid ounces of milk a day as Contoocook Creamery.

Jamie Robertson can trace most of what it costs to run that farm back to Canada — the grain, the fertilizer for the cornfields, the diesel in the tractors and delivery trucks.

On August 19, a 50% tariff on a range of Canadian goods takes effect.

"If we can't cover our costs, it's not going to be a good picture," Robertson told the Concord Monitor.

Kelly Ayotte's response, as governor of the state this farm sits in:

"As I have said before, I disagree with tariffs on Canada because they simply are not good for New Hampshire."

She added that she will "continue to urge the administration to resolve this dispute with one of our state's largest trading partners as quickly as possible."

Urging. That is the whole plan.

The part that should make a dairy farmer furious

Here is what the White House says these tariffs are for.

Trump signed three proclamations on July 20 under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 — an authority no president had used in at least 70 years. The White House fact sheet says Canada discriminates against U.S. exports in three sectors: motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, and dairy.

From the fact sheet itself:

"As part of its complicated and protectionist dairy system, Canada established tariff-rate quotas on U.S. cheese that are much more restrictive than the tariff-rate quotas imposed on similar imports of cheese into Canada from the EU."

So: a policy sold as standing up for American dairy farmers is about to raise the price of grain and fertilizer for an American dairy farm in Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

The tariffs cover roughly $20 billion in imports and hit goods that were previously protected under the USMCA — the trade agreement Trump himself signed in his first term. Energy, potash, fish, and critical minerals are exempt. Grain and fertilizer are not.

Robertson has already been squeezing what he can. The creamery switched from glass bottles to plastic to hold costs down. There is not much left to trim before the milk price moves or the farm doesn't work.

"I disagree" is not a policy

Give Ayotte this much: unlike many Republicans, she has not pretended the tariffs are good. She said in April 2025 that Canada is New Hampshire's number two trading partner and the tariffs were "not helping." She took a trade mission to Canada in the summer of 2025.

But every time saying so would have cost her something with Trump, she has passed.

• When New England's other governors sent a joint letter to Canada's eastern premiers, Ayotte refused to sign it — and skipped the meeting with their Canadian counterparts, sending a representative instead. The Globe's characterization of her posture was that she was "holding her breath and hoping for the best."
• Asked about a state gas tax suspension to give people immediate relief at the pump, she said in May she'd continue to monitor gas prices and did not embrace the idea.
• When she criticized the earlier 25% tariffs, she paired it with saying she "appreciated the concerns" Trump had about the border.

A governor has real tools. She can join other states in a formal position. She can suspend a state tax. She can put money into the state Department of Agriculture. She can say plainly that a specific policy by a specific president is hurting a specific farm and demand it stop.

What she has chosen instead is a sentence that expresses disagreement and commits to nothing — delivered about a policy that takes effect in under two weeks.

What the farmer actually asked for

Robertson wasn't asking anyone to save him with a bailout. He asked the state to stop hollowing out the things that keep farms viable:

"We just can't keep cutting and cutting those things out. We've got to keep some infrastructure to be able to keep farms rolling."

He named the state Department of Agriculture and the university system — extension services, research, the unglamorous public backbone under a working farm.

That is a request aimed squarely at a governor's budget. It is answerable. Ayotte has not answered it.

This is the pattern

New Hampshire has already paid for the tariffs in ways that have nothing to do with a dairy barn. Canadian travel to the state is down about 30% according to state officials, gutting tourism towns like North Conway. A toy company in Keene faced a 145% tax on every toy it imports from China, with its CEO saying they had to "cut your overhead… do something to survive."

Ayotte's approach to Trump has been consistent across issues, not just this one. When the administration announced federal monitors at the polls in Manchester and Nashua, she said she'd "welcome anyone" — in the same press conference where she vowed to fight the DNC over New Hampshire's primary. She is willing to pick fights. She picks them with people who aren't Trump.

And she is not alone in treating the cost of living as a communications problem. This week the House Majority Whip went on television and claimed eggs cost 78 cents and milk was under $2, when the government's own data put them at $2.14 and $4.32.

At least Ayotte concedes the tariffs are bad. She has simply decided that saying so is the entire job.

The math on August 19

In under two weeks, the cost of grain and fertilizer at a farm that has operated since 1907 goes up, because the President decided Canada is unfair to American cheese.

The governor of New Hampshire disagrees with this. She has said so. She will continue to urge.

Jamie Robertson will pay it.

Source

Contoocook Creamery faces fuel cost hikes, concerned about tariffs — Concord Monitor, August 3, 2026. Additional reporting from the Union Leader and Granite Post. Photo: Concord Monitor.